Alumni Trustees Nominated

Four alumni have been nominated to Duke's board of trustees by the executive committee of the board of directors of the Duke Alumni Association—one for the first time, and three for renewed terms. Paula Hannaway Crown '80, Paul Farmer '82, Bruce Karsh '77, and Susan Stalnecker '73 will serve six-year terms, beginning July 1.

Duke's charter calls for the election of one-third of its trustees by graduates of the university. Every two years, in odd-numbered years, the terms of four of the twelve alumni trustees expire. The DAA's executive committee nominates and submits a list of names to the university secretary for submission to the trustees. Four names are then approved for final submission to the alumni body, with additional nominations permitted by petition.

Crown, a trustee since 2003, is being nominated for a second term. She is a principal of Henry Crown and Company, a private investment firm in Chicago. A long-time university volunteer, she served on the Trinity College board of visitors from 1996 to 2001 and the Campaign for Duke steering committee from 1997 to 2003.  In 1988, she was instrumental in establishing the Lester Crown Endowment for Lectures in Ethics. She is vice chair of the trustee facilities and environment committee and serves on the board of advisers for the Nasher Museum of Art.

Farmer is the Presley Professor of medical anthropology in the department of social medicine at Harvard Medical School, attending physician in infectious diseases, and chief of the division of social medicine and health inequalities at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. He is a founding director of Partners In Health, an international charity that provides direct health-care services and conducts research and advocacy for people who are sick and living in poverty. Farmer was the subject of the book Mountains Beyond Mountains, the summer reading selection for the Duke Class of 2009, and has received the university's Humanitarian Award and the Distinguished Alumni Award.

Karsh, a trustee since 2003, is also nominated for a second term. He is president and co-founder of Oaktree Capital Management, LLC, an institutional money-management firm formed in 1995. His responsibilities include overseeing all of Oaktree's closed-end private investment partnership strategies, and serving as portfolio manager for Oaktree's distressed debt funds. He earned a J.D. from the University of Virginia School of Law, where he served as the notes editor of the Virginia Law Review and was a member of the Order of the Coif.

Karsh joined the DUMAC LLC board of directors in 2002 and was appointed chair in July 2005. He is a member of the trustee executive committee and serves on the audit and business and finance committees.

Stalnecker is also being nominated for a second trustee term. She is vice president of finance and treasurer of E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company. Her other executive roles at DuPont have included vice president of risk management and vice president of government and consumer markets. She has also served as director and treasurer of Conoco U.K. Ltd. and as a director for PPL Corporation.

Stalnecker serves as a member of the trustee executive committee, chairs the audit committee, and is vice chair of the business and finance committee. She earned an M.B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania. She and her husband, Mark E. Stalnecker '73, co-chaired the reunion gift committee for their thirtieth reunion in 2003.

After notice appears in print, alumni may submit a petition within thirty days signed by one-half of one percent (650) of the alumni body (130,000) to nominate additional candidates. Send names and biographical information by February 27, 2009, to Sterly Wilder '83, Executive Director, Alumni Affairs, Box 90572, Durham, N.C. 27708. Wilder maintains a confidential roster of alumni recommended as trustees and encourages alumni to submit nominations to her at any time. The next election will take place in 2011.